Permitting and Regulatory Approvals - Design-Build for Water and Wastewater Projects - page 272

• Flood control district
• Railroads
• Department of transportation—federal, state, and local
• Local agencies with responsibility for
- Right-of-Way or easement acquisition
- Stormwater control
Although the types of permits for a DB project are the same as for a DBB project,
the responsibility of permits, as well as the impact of permits on the project's schedules,
differs significantly.
PERMIT AND REGULATORY APPROVAL RISK ANALYSIS
Accounting for permitting and regulatory approvals begins with careful study of the
needs for the project. It is recommended to make this study a priority at the beginning
of the project rather than treating permitting and regulatory issues as tasks that need to
be accomplished later in the project (Water Design-Build Council 2010). Permitting and
regulatory agencies must be integrated into the planning stages of a DB project, and they
should be considered to be an additional collaborator to the owner and design-builder.
As a first step, the design-builder should be proactive in assisting the owner with the
identification of all the agencies whose approval is needed to complete a water or waste-
water project. Together, they should conduct a careful analysis of each agency that has
permitting or licensing requirements, so that the probable schedule for permit review and
compliance can be made. A risk analysis for the permitting and regulatory tasks can help
in the assignment of permitting responsibility to the entity that can best control that risk
(Water Design-Build Council 2010). The risk analysis must be tailored to the local entities
and regulations, as well as the owner's needs and objectives for the project. The analysis
should include a summary of fees for each permit and approval, as well as the anticipated
processing time and impact on the overall schedule. This information should be factored
into the overall schedule, which should show critical-path tasks that must be completed
before each permit can be obtained.
RESPONSIBILITY
Permitting delays are often contentious if not properly addressed within the contract. The
owner must consider what contractual provisions are necessary to address a third party's
inability to provide a permit within the contractually stipulated time frame. The contract
should define the division of responsibility between the owner and the DB entity for per-
mits and approvals and the appropriate means of cost and schedule relief if those respon-
sibilities are not met (Water Design-Build Council 2010).
Determining and defining the owner's level of responsibility are frequently over-
looked, yet they are essential. The Design-Build Institute of America considers one of
the primary advantages of DB delivery to be the single-source contract, which assigns
responsibility to a single DB entity without regard to the traditional designer entity or
the constructor (DBIA 2011). For water and wastewater permitting and regulatory agency
approval, a large portion of the responsibility should be the owner's, even though the